DESCRIPTION: (Principal Investigator's Abstract) The objective of the work for which NIH support is requested specifically lists problems having the goals of completing our synthetic routes to the morphine alkaloids, to taxol, and to quinine. As is generally known, our purpose is not really the synthesis per se, but rather the conviction, validated over the years, that total synthesis offers a great opportunity to discover relationships relating to the development of useful methodology to achieve specific connections or specific stereochemistry.